Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mothers Day!!
Friends!
Lily: She is always happy and silly!
Addie: Sits with me and bears with me! (We sit by Bryce, Calvin, and Blake!)
Breanne: Always has something funny or interesting to say.
Madison: is just amazing like no other person I know.
Sarah: is sweet!
Tina: Keeps my secrets and my silence.
Brina: is an example.
I have so many wonderful friends and they are always examples to me! If you are not included in this list, I still appreciate you and thank you everyone! BFFFs!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Half a Year as Giselle
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Finally!
Summer's sister passed by the open window, trying to look casual, though she knew she had no chance of getting past him. . . “Things never come when you look for them.” The wise words floated by like a butterfly. Old uncle Biz was standing by the little hermit's cottage doorway. He was short and thin and old and knobbly and leathery and worn down. He was very much like an old boot; rough and course though her uncle was, Summer's sister knew she would always be able to rely on him. He had the most amazing ways of knowing what she was thinking-- all the time. Summer's sister, however, had never found out why. “I know.” Summer's Umma, or mother, had passed on to the second life just two years ago, when Summer's sister was just a baby. Summer's sister did not have a real name, though Uncle Biz sometimes called her Daisy Girl. Papanwa had gone away to New York to search for work, and Summer's sister and Summer were sent to Uncle Bismark. “Yiy, my Daisy Girl.” He would always say that in his funny Cherokee way, but Summer's sister liked it. She was eleven years old “Your patience is so unlike mine.” His words rolled off his tongue and crackled like a firework. “I would like to be as patient as you, uncle.” “Daisy Girl!!!” “What? You are patient!” “Ah, but I am not! How long have you been waiting?” “Since I came home.” “YIY!!! Daisy Girl! Summah!!!” “What? Yiui! You yourself said waiting was the best thing we could hope for...” “No, Daisy Girl!” His hazel eyes were alight with wonder.
Daisy Girl spun around. A scarlet light had started across the sky. In no time at all, the sky was blood red. Then, a rainbow appeared in the ruby of the sky. The top of the rainbow was cut off, like the wind had blown it away. “It has happened!” A silver flash. Then a bright white star. A purple jet would follow that. Soon the entire rainbow had appeared, and then some other colors besides. As the last one vanished, Summer's sister gasped. “Thirty? Thirty was a lot more than last time.” She had heard her uncle tell stories about things like this happening. “The last of the Jissth team has been born.” “We will meet them.” “In the future, yes. But not until we-- and they-- are ready.” “I hope this will work. She must not take over.” “We have to hope for the best. . .”
Sophie Baird, was, indeed, a very ordinary child. She had ordinary brothers and ordinary parents. She had ordinary feelings and ordinary looks. The only thing different about her was her grades. She was exceptionally bright. Last year, she got a 145 % in math, a 170 % in all language subjects and a 139 in science. She wondered why everything was so easy. Everyone else wondered why things were so hard. She didn't have many friends, because once a very strange thing had happened in the Baird family. Sophie had fallen off a building, a very tall building, and managed to stay alive when she was eight. Not only that, but she hadn't broken anything either. Her family called her miracle. School classmates called her freak and ran away from her. Sometimes she wished she could just disappear. Whenever she did, people would blink and stare. Sophie was creeped out by that.
Little did Sophie know that all around the world, other children had the same problem. Just a few miles away, in a lighted window, one could see a little blond girl reading a book. She was thinking of the water and wishing she could get to it. We move on to a tall 10-year-old wearing shorts and a t-shirt, pacing. He was angry. He kicked the bed. The bed flew through the wall with a bang, crash, whiz! His parents investigated the noise.
The very night this happened, Uncle Bismarck told Summer it was time.
000 000
The little intensely blond girl rolled out of bed to the beep of her alarm clock. She was pretty tiny for a fifth grader. She was skinny and tan and she had a terrible case of the bed heads. She put on her blue shirt with the floral pattern. She remembered with a jolt that she hadn't done the assignment that her teacher had assigned before the school year had even started. She hurried and got her map and scrawled in the names of the states and their nicknames as her dad came down the stairs to awake her for her first day of fifth grade. She jumped up, braided her hair,and ran to eat breakfast. She licked the last bit of sweet, sugary peach syrup off her plate and dashed outside to run to school with her little brothers. This was, indeed, the daily routine for Emily Pew. She had lived the cluttered life for many years, but this year it would be even worse. She was bored with her normal classes and would be, instead, in a gifted and talented class. Mrs. Spigarelli was the teacher's name, and she was sometimes very rough. Emily was there at the school, Cedar Ridge Elementary, before even the bus. She dashed to the paw marked number twenty-one, and plopped her backpack down contentedly, the first to arrive in her class. A boy named Bridger Petersen arrived next, and then all of a sudden the whole of Mrs. Spigarelli's first track class was there, lined up and ready to go.
Bryce Richard and Tiffany Gibbons ran together to catch up to the line that was seeping into the school building. Tiffany was running when she tripped over a black and brown thing. It was a rattlesnake! Not the ordinary rattlesnake, either. This one had three heads!
Tiffany screamed as the rattlesnake struck at her leg, which was bare because she was wearing capris. Her vision went fuzzy as she helplessly drained of energy as the venom traveled slowly down her veins toward her heart. “Tiffany? What are you doing? Hurry up--” Bryce turned around and saw the scene, the rattlesnake twisting and writhing. He was shortly dazed but then came back to earth. He vaguely remembered the school building and ran toward it yelping, “Help! Help!”
“Bryce, what are you yelling about? Is someone dying?”
“Wha--” He turned around and saw Tiffany standing up, perfectly fine, but just a trace of paleness was still in her face.
“You were just bitten by a three headed rattlesnake! You were lying on the ground! You were all white!” He waited for her to freak out.
“Really? How interesting.”
“You know, I think I expected like a. . . well. . . different expression after I said that.”
“What exactly are you talking 'bout?”
Bryce thought for a moment.
“Well, y'know. . . the normal one.”
“HUH?”
“The thing that girls do. You know? Screaming and running around and stuff along the lines of that.”
“Oh. Well, I just have to teach that snake some manners. How rude, biting someone on purpose.”
She then walked over to the twisting snake. She showed not a hint of fear, only determinedness, as she did. She spoke as Bryce watched, wide eyed.
“SyOOsth ssssith shaaassssaaaaaaahhh sissammmae, SSAga sssabbaaassss ssaaaaiiii.”
The snake responded in the same language that Tiffany had scolded it in. Bryce made up his mind that all he would say to the class to excuse the lateness was he was taking Tiffany to the nurse's office because she had had an incident.
000 000
At the moment she walked into the classroom,Grace felt a warm feeling of welcome. She could tell that these children in this room were like her. At the front of the class stood an old man and a middle-aged woman with black hair, brown eyes, and a red and black suit. The old man's hazel eyes glittered as they met Grace's, and she blinked. There was something in those eyes, something that made Grace even more happy. The feeling was sympathy. This man knew that every one of those kids were outcasts, freaks, weirdos in the normal world. She wanted to stare into those eyes forever. A sharp voice cut the air.
“Hello, children. Get settled and join me in the back. We have a very special guest. I thought he'd be here a few days from now, but here he is.” It was the woman, who was the teacher, apparently. Grace shook her head as if waking up from a dream. Wow, she thought, those eyes. . .
“Sorry I'm late!”
A boy with blond hair and large round blue eyes walked into the classroom. He stared intelligently at the people staring right back.
“Uh, why is everybody staring at me? Whoa. . . is that just me or. . .”
He trailed off. The man's eyes glittered again and he smiled. “Uh, Tiffany had a problem so I took her to the nurse's office. . .”
The man spoke. “So you were late. She is allergic to something, no? Well, have a seat. . . um. . . what is your name?”
“Bryce Richard,” he mumbled as he sat down.
Emily's head snapped right to the boy. Bryce? She knew him from the third grade! He had always sat by her.
“Well, my fine young boy, you arrived with a bang on your first day. My style. But now I talk of something serious.” His bright, almond shaped eyes surveyed the classmates' very alert ones.
“I see now you will be a very easy group. In your eyes I sense the deepest and most sincere feelings. You are all very gifted and blessed. You have very special tasks you will each as individuals and as a group be given. You must know, however, that the tasks you will be given will not be easy ones. You will face grave dangers and evil beyond description. If you are frightened and don't think you are up to saving the world, you do not have to. But there is very little chance that the ones you leave behind can do it without you. And unless you want to live in a world of darkness and pain, I recommend against it. You must learn to work together and be united. Quarreling will do little more than bring you down. If you can, you must learn to work as a family and love each other like a family. Only as a family will you be able to defeat the Great Evil. I must explain now, what you are going up against. In this world, there are those who feel it important to contribute to the ecosystem and the earth-- ah, what's the acronym??? Oh yes-- A.S.A.P.” A girl named Brenne smiled at the man.
“But there are some who have been so hurt by the earth or the people that are in it that they want revenge. They want to, in return, hurt it as much as possible, and then they turn maniacal. They find it addicting. They have the craziest feelings to kill, but they don't ignore them. This feeling flows like a parasite's disease into their bodies. A perfect example of that is Missga. She is a widow who's whole family, no, life was destroyed by an earthquake. She felt that, if she could, she would kill the earth too. And she discovered a way to do it. Now she is preparing to leech a disease into the soul of the earth that will wipe out the people on it, say, one to twelve years in age. I believe none of you proceed that age, so you will also be destroyed. You must defeat her, in any way possible. If you must kill her, you kill her, but try not to. She is our sister, so you must not try to kill her unless you have to.
“Children, I am Bismarck. I will be an instructor, as well as guide you. I was once one of the team, also. I sense there is someone here that has my power. Hmmm, let's see. . . Nicole Smith. Nicole? Stand up please. You will be the first trained. Oh, uh, I mean, you must come with me. You will tell me what has happened to you.”
Nicole stood up, casting her eyes about as if to see someone else taking her place. As she did, Bismarck spoke again.
“Children, it is time. Time for your training. Time for your questions to be answered. You will all be a part of the Jissth Team. It is time to begin your training.”
Training
The children walked silently out to recess, when Bryce spoke, the first for a long time.
“Do you think it's true?”
Grace was intrigued. “I do, actually. If this was all a big joke. . . well, I've heard Mrs. Spigarelli doesn't joke.”
“Too true! I think it's right. I feel calm around that man. I feel like there's something about him . . . it makes me feel like I was floating. You know. . . happy. If I can't trust him, I don't think I can trust anyone.”
Emily had spoken. Bryce looked at the girl and a bell went bing! This girl was right. And strangely familiar . . .
“Well, I'm in! Who's with me?!” said Emily.
All at once, the whole of the class that was there was saying “I am”, though they hadn't exactly meant to.
“Well, it's settled. We'll do it.”
000 000
As second track got in, they were surprised to see and get the same lecture that the others had. The old man named Bismarck was going to give Nicole her training.
“Nicole? Come with me. I will have to ask you to do me a favor.”
“O-okay. . .?”
They walked silently to the library. As they reached the doors, Bismarck grabbed Nicole and walked through the steel green doors.
“Just play along.” He whispered
“May I have a moment?” He asked angrily, as if she was in trouble. What is going on? Thought Nicole.
“Of course.” The librarian hightailed it out of the library. She wasn't in the mood to be in a situation this horrible! Having to come to the library! Well!
“Sorry. I had to get her out of here! All right. Well, have you ever had anything happen, like say everything went black and suddenly you could tell what people were thinking?”
“Yes. One time, I was looking at this guy I had a crush on and I, like, suddenly knew he liked me. I even asked him, and he said, 'How did you know?' I told him about it, but so far he's the only person. I think it started after my losing and finding.”
“Losing and finding?”
“Oh, yeah. I was kidnapped by a man with a gun. He said if he left and I tried to run, he would track me down and shoot me. He even put this beeper signal in my pocket so if I ran, it would start beeping. He glued it on the pocket, too, but I ripped it of somehow. Then I ran until I got to an old lady's house, Rosemary. She let me use her telephone, and I called the police. They came and took me back to my house.”
“Interesting. Well, I guess you could tell me what I am thinking right now?”
“Hey, what? Wait. . . you can't do that! I have to think for like, almost a half an hour.”
“Very good. You have control of your talent already.”
000 000
The rest of the day went the same way. He called people back to talk to him. He had heard a freak car accident where the victim hung between death and life and was inches from it, but then was miraculously saved by some mysterious doctor, an incident where someone drank a potion a witch made and was attracted to water ever since, and a whole bunch of other things. This made him think. This was going to be a hard team to get to agree on everything.
“All right. Kids, we are going to the gym to exercise your talents further. Let us go.”
They walked the very short walk to the auditorium, made sure nobody would come in, and listened.
“Children, get into a space where no one is three feet or more in front, behind, or to the side of you.” They did as they were told.
“Right. Now, if you have had a. . .” Tiffany walked in.
“Hello, everyone!”
“Hello, Tiffany. Sit over there. Alright, people. You must try and focus. Focus focus focus. Focus is the key to everything. Who here knows why they do what they do?”
An extremely tiny girl raised her hand. “I think it has something to do with our incidents.” She talked with a captivating lisp, saying her “S” es as “TH”. Bismarck smiled. Megan smiled back.
“You are the one.”
“I'm the what?”
“You are to be the leader of this group.”
“Me? Why me?”
“I sense you have a strong glow about you. You will have this.”
He held a tattered old map. It was yellowed and looked stained with a blue spot. Megan took it. It was as soft as a piece of velvet, yet torn and ancient as hieroglyphics.
“Anyway, you must use this map to find Missga. And now to start with your talent.”
He grabbed a basin that was near him and filled it with water. Emily stared at the basin longingly. “Don't you worry,” Bismarck said. “This is for you!” “Thanks!!!” said Emily.
Bismarck set the basin in front of the girl. “Now, I want you to concentrate on this basin as hard as you can.” “Alright. Why?” “Just do it.”
Emily stared at the basin. Everyone heard a sloshing sound. The water in the basin was moving-- and Emily wasn't even touching it! Emily raised her head and the water followed the movement of her eyes right out of the basin. Emily moved the water, in a shiny, shimmering ball, over to one end of the gym and then the other.
“WOW!” Yelled Jared, right as the water ball was over his head, directly above him.
Not smart. This broke Emily's concentration. The water fell on top of Jared's head.
“Whoops!!!! Hee-hee!” Emily giggled. So did Tiffany. Soon everyone was laughing and finally Jared broke down and laughed too.
Friday, February 13, 2009
JUST FOR FUN!
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year (anytime).
4. You have no clue what it is going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on how to properly wash your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure.
5. I reserve the right to do something completely strange.
~~~~The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same thing to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me that they did, win a FABULOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
5,4,3,2,1. . . Blast Off!
"AAAH! Turn off all transporter power!" "Why?" "It's damaged!" You know what you need to do. You click on the menu that says "Power Distribution" and click the minus button on the side of the word that says Transporters. You turn it off. All of a sudden, a mechanical voice comes on. "You must transport in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. . ." "I fixed it!" Just as you are about to not be able to transport the dying aliens on the surface of the planet being slaughtered by asteroids (and whose sun is about to be sucked into a massive black hole) because your transporters are broken, and your engineer has fixed them. You turn the power in them back on and you sigh with relief. The mechanical voice has cried "You have succeeded in transporting life forms to the USS Voyager!"
But your peace doesn't last long. You hear almost instantly the pilot reply, "Captain, we have asteroids that are heading our way and they-- they are HUGE! We are also about to enter the debris trail classified Oort Cloud FC4710." Oh, man! This is where we had trouble last time. The pilot dodges debris and asteroids as you make your way safely through the Oort Cloud.
Again, though, only a few seconds pass before you hear a voice say, "Captain, we've detected an enemy alien ship. Grab the guns, quick! They are preparing to board!" You grab a gun and the engineer has gotten out of his hole. Each crew member has a gun pointed at one of the highly visible alien trapdoors. You know anything could happen while you fight the aliens. There could be another asteroid shower, another attack, or the Ferengi will start out on the mission to get the precious ores next to the supermassive black hole. A sound startles you and you see the trapdoor open. Anything could happen. . . anything. . .
These were the thoughts running through the mind of yours truly!
I was an operations officer today on a team of ships in a rescue fleet. This is the online briefing for my mission:
The year is 2384. Humans have come a long way since the launch of the first satellites in the 1950's. We are exploring deep space, looking to understand the mysteries of the universe. We are looking for answers to questions that have been asked since man first became self aware. Who are we? Are we alone? How did we come to be? Where are we going?
The United Federation of Planets, also called the Federation, is our space nation. The Federation has 150 planets that joined together to create a nation based on freedom and democracy. Earth is the capital. Starfleet is the military and exploration branch of the UFP. Your ship, the USS Voyager, is a Starfleet ship. Starfleet's primary job is to explore new regions of the galaxy, to find new life and new civilizations.
Recently, a Federation science ship, the USS Bridger, was entering a section of the galaxy just recently cleared for exploration when they found something unusual.
The USS Bridger is a deep space exploration ship. It carries extra antimatter fuel, dilithium crystals, and supplies to make long, deep space treks. It can travel further than any other ship, even the Voyager.
While en route to explore a star with two planets capable of supporting life, the Bridger picked up an old style radio signal. It was a voice, in a language not currently known.
The signal seemed to originate from a star cataloged as FC4700. The Bridger contacted Starfleet Command with news of the discovery and sent a recording of what they heard. Starfleet scientists sent the recording to the UFP Science Council for review. There, enough of the transmission was decoded to learn it was a call for help. The Science Council immediately ordered the Bridger to change course and move as fast as possible to investigate further.
The Bridger dropped out of warp speed right infront of the Oort Cloud, just outside the star system. The Bridger's astronomers were shocked at what they saw: next to the star they found a rogue black hole.
We thought that this kind of black hole existed but we had never seen one. This was an amazing discovery. This black hole, we discovered, was moving through our galaxy along with many other stars. It was part of a dwarf galaxy (a galaxy much smaller than ours) that the Milky Way was consuming.